Dances with Volvox: Flow-induced bound states in the active two-body problem

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• Austen Bolitho, DAMTP
• Tuesday 26 November 2019, 13:00-14:00
• MR11, CMS.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Etienne Fodor.

An exact solution for the dynamics of a pair of sedimenting active particles is presented yielding a constant ‘pseudo-energy’ H. These trajectories form a complete foliation of phase space and are bound when H is negative. The closed orbits wind around the invariant 2-torus with a frequency ratio of 2. Near a plane surface the two body torque destabilizes the bound state. Stability is regained through the addition of a one body torque resulting in a unique bound state. This is shown to be similar to the relaxation of a forced damped pendulum. This theory elucidates the essential physics that govern the dancing Volvox minuet state and may be applicable to a wider range of active experiments.

This talk is part of the DAMTP Statistical Physics and Soft Matter Seminar series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All CMS events
• DAMTP Statistical Physics and Soft Matter Seminar
• MR11, CMS
• Soft Matter
• bld31

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